Elizabeth+Winter

On November 11, 1916, 28-year-old homemaker Elizabeth Margaret B. Winter died at her Chicago home from sepsis caused by an abortion perpetrated by Cecelia Stejskal, whose profession is given only as "abortion provider." Though Stejskal was held by the coroner, the case never went to trial.

(Mrs. Winter is identified as Margaret B. Winter in Cook County death records, but as Elizabeth M. B. Winter in the Homicide in Chicago Interactive Database. Both the date and address of death match in both records.)

Note, please, that with overall public health issues such as doctors not using proper aseptic techniques, lack of access to blood transfusions and antibiotics, and overall poor health to begin with, there was likely little difference between the performance of a legal abortion and illegal practice, and the aftercare for either type of abortion was probably equally unlikely to do the woman much, if any, good. For more information about early 20th Century abortion mortality, see [|Abortion Deaths 1910-1919].

 For more on pre-legalization abortion, see __[|The Bad Old Days of Abortion] __

Sources:
 * Homicide in Chicago Interactive Database
 * death certificate



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